(Captain GR Gopinath founded Air Deccan and is considered a pioneer in the low-cost airline sector. He recently joined Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party.)Simon Denyer, the former India chief of the Washington Post, in his recent book 'Rogue Elephant' talks about corrupt business leaders who are roadblocks in the way of building of a new re-awakened India.
The issue of corruption in politics has gripped the nation from the time of Anna Hazare's anti-graft movement in 2012.
During the Anna movement, the campaign was issue-based. He demanded systemic changes. He did not take names. It was obvious to him that those who were accused of corruption controlled investigating agencies and that meant the guilty would go unpunished. So he sought to make investigating agencies independent of the rulers. He never demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister or a change of government. He said that would not change anything as successive governments were unlikely to be any cleaner.
The advent of the Aam Aadmi Party or AAP marked a departure from that.
Arvind Kejriwal went after individual politicians and businessmen by naming them. He named Robert Vadra as an alleged beneficiary in alleged illegal land deals in collusion with the ruling Congress and thereby tried to establish that politicians in power right at the very top were feathering their own nest at the cost of the nation. And more recently, he mounted a fierce frontal assault on Reliance and even had an FIR filed against Mukesh Ambani and a few ministers and bureaucrats, accusing the UPA II of crony capitalism.
While individuals should be investigated and prosecuted, if such an action is warranted, going after one or two business houses or a minister is akin to treating the symptom instead of curing the disease. And the ruling party always runs the risk of being accused of politically-motivated actions by misusing investigating agencies.
Anna Hazare, though naive, understood this intuitively and agitated for a Jan Lokpal Bill with autonomy to the CBI.
In the last three years, the debate has focused on political corruption. However there has been no spotlight on the rampant corruption of business leaders. The argument that they are victims of the system will not bear scrutiny and does not wash with the public.
While the focus will continue to be on politicians as the fount of all evil and it may be justified up to a point, the searchlight must not exclude business leaders who can be established as bankrolling politicians. Some business leaders will be the most distressed if the system is cleansed, as they are very comfortable operating under a regime that bends rules and accommodates their agenda readily.
So what kind of reforms and specific punitive laws do we need that will act as a deterrent against businessmen who indulge in bribery? Many Western countries have enacted stringent laws to tackle corruption by businesses. They have even made offering bribes in foreign countries punishable. The swift arrests of officials from AugustaWestland Helicopters in Italy and Rolls Royce Engines in UK, who had dealings in India, are good examples, while our government is still on a wild goose chase.
Without getting caught up in the dilemma on whether politicians are responsible for corruption or businessmen, questions do arise on the role of business leaders in shaping a just society. Why are immensely successful business leaders with impeccable credentials not speaking against corruption that some in their community perpetuate to the disadvantage of thousands of honest businessmen and aspiring entrepreneurs?
Corrupt business leaders and crony capitalists are like rogue elephants who can destroy the well-being of the rest of the herd and also the forest eco-system. May be, we can learn from wild life wardens how they deal with such pachyderms.
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